By Maj. Shaban Bantariza
Nov 3, 2003
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Right from the first year of the first A.D (Anno Domino/year of our Lord) century, there has always been conflict between the religious kingdom and the secular kingdom as exhibited by King Herod ordering the killing of all boy- children born at the time Jesus Christ was born. Reason? King Herod had heard of some young child being said to be a "contender" to Herod's Kingdom. The Prophets had indeed talked of such a "potentially dangerous" king who would come to rule according to strange laws and doctrines. What followed after the failed assassination of Jesus in the mass slaying of the innocent boy-children of Judea, is a litany of massacres and martyrdoms all over the world throughout the centuries the majority from conflict between the earthly kings and the Heavenly Kings who so often doubled as heavenly and earthly, hence the conflict. In our own Uganda, we have the Uganda Martyrs of the 19th Century arising out of the clash between Kabaka Mwanga and the missionaries who held the Bible in one hand and the rifle in the other. In the 1970s, under dictator Idi Amin (RIP), our own Archbishop Janan Luwum was murdered as a consequence of his active participation in the struggles to oust Amin from power. Forget the fact that it was a justified cause. The point of the matter is that the whole episode came off as a clash between the Mitre (religious kingdom) and the Crown. (The Mitre is the ceremonial headgear worn by bishops, which is the symbol of the religious power of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth while the Crown is the ceremonial headgear of the earthly king, on his throne, the earth.) Right from the first century of the apostles and disciples through the religious crusades of Christians and Muslims, (Muslims because they mainly tended to fuse faith and the state) Catholics and Protestants at a later date (also here because the Protestants, better known as Anglicans, tended to have a state religion) the safer way has been a kind of "balance of forces" with each on his own territory, and each appreciating and or at least tolerating the other. The Crown reasons that politics is not a very respectful engagement and if the church and other religious leaders actively take positions, they may not avoid being treated like commoners because it is commoners who engage in obnoxious language use when they disagree on matters they hold dear to themselves. Commoners are not exactly diplomatic in their language and practice. And this is the reason why cultural leaders are barred by law from engaging with their commoner subjects in political debates and bickering. This is the reason the junior minister for Industry Namuyangu was recently quoted in the Ugandan press to have advised Archbishop Cardinal Emmanuel Wamala to disengage from political debates on the controversial presidential term limits and mind the morality of his flock and manage the church collections (never mind that she has since retracted and or apologised to Emmanuel Cardinal Wamala). Of course, this sounds impolite, to say the least, to the Catholic "Prince" in Uganda. But that is exactly the problem. You cannot engage in dirty games and expect to come out spotlessly clean. If you get in, you must know what to expect. Maj. Bantariza is the army spokesman. |
� 2003 The Monitor Publications
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